Author: Patty Radish

“Grace” and I Went For a Walk, and Found “Authenticity”

~ Patty Radish ~ 2 Comments

I have been hard at work getting this year’s goals organized. In the midst of it all, I decided to add an extra piece, the Illustrated Faith “Goals With Grace” devotional. It had me at “Grace” being that was my “One Little Word“. (pretend those are “air quotes”, because that’s not annoying!)

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The front cover, and as you can see, I have the word Grace as my word for 2017. Let me tell you, this a great word, and I definitely need it in my life.

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 But, after all the reading, praying, and journaling, (and writing a pretty lengthy post on IG and FB), I realized I needed a word with a little more substance.

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 I’m almost sure that authenticity and grace can walk through this year hand in hand quite nicely, and I can’t wait to see all the ways authenticity will guide me this year! (Time to work on my One Little Word binder! Yay!)

I still plan on sharing my goals setting scheme with you. I have been working on this devotional so diligently, I haven’t made time for much else. And I may do a flip through of this devotional on Youtube if I get motivated enough.

Here’s a link I shared on Facebook you might find interesting:

A Life In Progress

Thank you so much for the visit,

I’ll talk to you soon,

~Patty

(p.s. Just as a heads up, I’m not affiliated with any links I share except my own, I just like to be helpful)

Sewing My Little Heart Out

~ Patty Radish ~ 6 Comments

This year is all about getting our house in order. I had the same intention last year, and I was really quite successful, but there is still so much to be done!

I love having handwork to do in the evening in front of T.V. or listening to an audio book (and ticking WIP’s off my list, win!) so hand quilting small projects is perfect.

img_6144Here are my latest creations. The two at the top were put together and quilted before the Holidays, but needed binding. The runner on the bottom was pinned, but needed the fabric pieces stitched on, then bound.

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You may be wondering why I need so many runners…

Full Disclosure:

I really dislike dusting! Every once in a while, I will take a few runners and throw them in the wash. Or, if they are in a hard to remove kind of place, under a T.V. and such, I will just use a vacuum attachment on them. I don’t know, they just seem to make the furniture look cosy, and I love making them.

img_6151I had originally made this one for my bedroom, but I really, really disliked it there. So now I have one less runner to make for my sewing room. 🙂

img_6152Just so you know, this and the previous runner, were made out of blocks from quilts I had started many moons ago, and had never finished. It’s such a huge relief to use things up and move on!  This one is going into my sewing room too. I have about 8 runners to make for my sewing room alone, but I definitely have all the fabric I need.

Yay for using up supplies!

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This runner is for our dining room table. It’s made by stitching fabric pieces onto linen with vintage wool thread. I wanted to use thick colored thread on this because I wanted the option of flipping it to give my table a more neutral look.

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Here is the wool thread I used. I found several spools of this gorgeousness at the thrift store a few years ago, Love! You can find some on Etsy and Ebay too.

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One of the reasons why I’ve made getting our house in order this year, and last, is because we will be selling this house in a few years, and I want to be ready to de-personalize and neutralize our decor. As you well know by now, I love color, so this is an easy fix!

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This is what it looks like on our table, just the pop of color it needed. I’ll be starting the placemats this week, I’ve chosen a leafy, vintage-y fabric for them, and muslin for the backside. I’m not sure If I will be doing any hand stitching on them yet, we’ll have to see.

In between stitching my heart out, I have been busy with working in my faith devotionals from last year, planning out my year with Lara Casey’s “Goal Setting Planner“, and I signed up for Ali Edwards “One Little Word“, mine is “GRACE”. I will be talking a little more about those things as soon as I’m a bit more organized. I fell off the “No spend” wagon, but hope to jump back on asap! 🙂

So, until next time,

Thank you so much for stopping by,

~Patty

Holiday Journal Share

~ Patty Radish ~ 9 Comments

Hi, remember me!

Wow, it’s been a long time! I took a much needed break, and now I’m ready for a new year! With that in mind, I thought it would be fun to share a bit of my Holiday journal. I try to start these journals around Thanksgiving and run them through the New Year. This journal has about 35 pages, but I’ll only be showing some of my favorites.

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I made this year’s journal out of a vintage Christmas children’s story book, not too many surprises there I imagine. My only regret is that the format was too small for some of the images I wanted to use, so next year I will be going bigger. 🙂

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Let’s start with Thanksgiving. Most of these images are from a planner I took apart. I couldn’t bring myself to toss all the decor, so I repurposed them here. The small  gold card is from a Thanksgiving gift I received in the mail, some super yummy bread loaves for our feast. These journals serve as memory keepers, so I try and incorporate as many keepsakes as I can.

To Christmas…

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Case in point: a beautiful card sent to me by a wonderful friend, thank you Jenny!

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I alternated the original pages from this book with painted pages of my own, along with pocket pages and an envelope to hold notes and memorabilia. I think the page on the right is from the Nutcracker, I tried to tie the colors in together here. The tree on the left is a napkin, the circles are punched washi paper, postage stamps, ephemera, star stenciling, and a little doodling. Doodling on my pages is still pretty new to me, but I really like the contrast.

img_6127Using kitschy Christmas decor images was the most fun. These mid-century crafty ideas were too irresistible to pass up!

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Heading into the New Year, I couldn’t resist including my favorite photo from Christmas, our little elf. On the right is one of the pocket pages, perfect for storing the “Ring in the New Year” postcards from a swap I participated in.

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These are some of the postcards I made for the swap. So much fun!

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Here are the 3 postcards I received from the swap along with a Christmas themed one I received from a dear friend, thank you Iryna!  Love these!

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Here is what I came up with for New Years. I’m busy making plans for what I want to accomplish this year. Gardening and getting my house in order are on the top of my list. This home with a snowy scene out of the window is so inspiring. On the other side of this page has the instructions on how to build one of these indoor gardens. I won’t be doing that, so I arted it up.

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I made a bit of a mess with my New Years greeting, but it was fun.

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Playing with images and paint and keeping it simple, I just needed enough room to journal a bit.

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The last two pages of this journal. You may have noticed that my pages are becoming a tad minimalist, I’m trying out letting the images speak for themselves. Adding the doodles is really quite relaxing and adds an extra touch that seems to finish off the page.

I’m streamlining many aspects of my life this year, for instance not using props in my photos, or cutting back on outside projects. I’m hoping that I can free up more time to actually create, or decorate my house,  and hopefully share here more often. I’m also going to try a “No Spend” experiment with art and crafting supplies, except adhesives or pens, for the year.

That should be interesting, wish me luck!

So, until next time,

Happy New Year!

See you soon,

~Patty

iHanna Fall 2016 Postcard Swap

~ Patty Radish ~ 9 Comments

Well, it’s that time of the year again. I’m supposed to downscaling my projects right now, but the iHanna PCS only comes around twice a year, and I couldn’t pass it up!

Once again, I have decided to share my postcard making process, I’ve added a few new steps. This post is photo heavy, so I will try to keep the jibber-jabber to a minimum:

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Step one: postcard backgrounds

I usually have a few left over pieces from my art journal makings, so I just cut them down to 6″ x 4″. These are a combination of spray dye, paint, stenciling, and stamping.

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Step two: adhering tissue paper

I tear long pieces of tissue paper, then adhere it with matte medium and a soft brush. This tissue is my newest favorite.

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Step three: adhere random ephemera

I have a lot of store bought ephemera I’m trying to use up, and projects like these are perfect for this!

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Step four: adhere vintage image

I always have book pages left over from my journal making, I go through them once in a while and punch or cut out the images, so I usually have lots of these on hand.

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Step five: postage stamps

What is mail art with out postage stamps, always one of my favorite additions.

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Step six: strategically placed washi tape

There’s a lot happening on these little cards, a bit of washi can give them some much needed structure.

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Step seven: a wash of “antiqued” matte medium

Just put a drop of each pigment color into some matte medium, mix, and apply to the entire surface of your project.

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Here’s a before and after.

The difference is subtle, but worth the extra step in my book. I use this technique on my art journal pages quite often. It tones down the whites and calms the brighter colors, giving the page/project a more cohesive look.

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Step eight:

Going around some of the features with pencil, this gives the piece depth and contrast.

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Step nine: address and send with Love!

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I had so much fun making these that I made 15 of them, I only needed 10 for the swap!

Once again,

Thank you for popping in,

Have a great weekend,

~Patty

In My Own Backyard…So To Speak

~ Patty Radish ~ 1 Comment

One of the things I promised myself this year was to take the time to get out and walk more. I finally started over the last couple of weeks, better late than never, but I needed a change of scenery. So, this morning I put together some walking gear, packed a lunch, and off I went. There is a beautiful drive to a park with walking trails in a neighboring town, and as I drove out of our town, I saw a sign that read “Bonhoeffer Botanical Garden” just on the other side of the freeway. My husband and I had noticed various goings on over the last couple of years, but had never taken the time to check it out.

Anyway, I turned the car around, and this is what I discovered…

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This is the view walking into the park, beautiful ponds, trails, and walkways all around.

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Baby trees, ferns and wild bushes. Who knows who might be living in there, magical.

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Educational signs and plant labels abound. I didn’t take the time to read them on this trip. This is literally 5 minutes from my house, I’ll be back!

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This reminded me of a favorite drawing. I took loads of photos, there will have to be a part two of this post.

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One of several bird houses, I love the mossy roof. I almost expected to see smoke coming out a tiny chimney.

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Ferns and moss. I absolutely LOVE living in a place where ferns and moss grow abundantly!

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This batch of ferns are growing in a large tree stump, gorgeous!

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And a little natural water feature.

I hope you enjoyed our little field trip. I can’t wait to print some of these photos out and add them to my journals.

This is one of the changes I was hoping to make with my art journaling. I feel as if there has been something missing and I’m hoping that using some of my own photography will be the answer. If it is, you’ll be one of the first to know!

Thanks once again for the visit,

Have a beautiful day,

~Patty